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From inmate to Vancouver city councillor, Jean Swanson’s year-end review

VANCOUVER—Vancouver city councillor Jean Swanson still wears the friendship bracelet woven by young female inmates she befriended during her four-day stint at Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in August. She hasn’t taken it off once.

Swanson, 75, was arrested for civil disobedience in late July after protesting the Kinder Morgan pipeline at the gates of the Burnaby Mountain tank farm. At the time, the longtime anti-poverty advocate was a city council candidate for the left-of-centre party Coalition Of Progressive Electors — and would be their sole member elected into office on Oct. 20.

On Friday, she posted a photo on social media with both her inmate and city council ID cards laid side-by-side alongside the caption, “My year in review. Ha ha #vanpoli.”

“I couldn’t stop marvelling at how similar they physically looked … but they’re totally different,” she told StarMetro. “The other part of it was actually managing to get elected at the same time you’re previously considered an inmate.”

While one card didn’t allow Swanson to go anywhere beyond cell walls, the other in turn, gave her access “to everything” in council chambers. The post garnered more than 1,000 likes within less than 24 hours.

For Swanson, that highlights how many people in the city of Vancouver were — and are — opposed to the pipeline expansion project. More than 220 British Columbians were arrested for breaking a court injunction to oppose the pipeline. Roughly a third of them were over the age of 60.

The response to the Kinder Morgan action was “overwhelmingly positive,” she added. People would stop her on the bus or buying vegetables to say “thank you” for going to jail. And that, she argued, flowed over into her campaign platforms — such as calling for a rent freeze, a mansion tax, and an end to homelessness.

“Our slogan was the city we need,” she said. “And that it could all be done with political will … Actually putting out there a framework for things people thought we couldn’t talk about or aren’t possible.”

Swanson pursued an aggressive progressive agenda and was one of eight new city councillors and two incumbents — all fractured along political lines with no clear alliances forged — elected in Vancouver’s tense municipal election with 48,955 votes.

Still, there’s a lot that needs to be done to create an equitable society, she said. And a massive shift of political will at all three levels of government will be necessary.

“I don’t know if there’s the votes to do it all,” she explained. “We have the NPA (Non Partisan Association) up there trying to get rid of the school tax. I think people who have really expensive properties should be paying more tax and that tax should be going for public services. We are on completely different wavelengths that way, so, political will is a problem.”

There are things that cannot be done unless there’s a “big movement” from the outside, she insisted, pointing to a recent motion which saw more than 50 people at two city council sessions call for more protections for renters facing evictions and hostile buyouts.

Order of Canada recipient and Vancouver city council candidate Jean Swanson, 75, is arrested for civil disobedience during a Kinder Morgan pipeline protest in June. (MELANIE GREEN / STAR METRO VANCOUVER)

And it’s actions like those, Swanson said, which will be compulsory to get progressive motions passed and increase transparency at City Hall. She is committed to ending homelessness and free transit for low-income people.

“It’s going to take a lot of work with people who are passionate to put the pressure on,” she said.

Though the work is all-consuming, Swanson does find respite in taking the odd nap. In fact, she moved her favourite rocking chair from home to her office at City Hall where she’s rested her eyes on particularly long days during the dinner break.

Going from behind bars to council chambers has reinvigorated the work Swanson has been doing most of her life to fight poverty — and keep people out of jail.

Jean Swanson and COPE candidates held a rally in support of a universal pass for the working class and unveiled a 'billboard' outside of City Hall Skytrain station in October. (JENNIFER GAUTHIER / STAR METRO VANCOUVER)

The bracelet sitting on Swanson’s wrist reminds her of their struggle.

“The vast majority of women who were in there shouldn’t have been,” she said. “So many people in there were beautiful, young, Indigenous women who suffered so much trauma. Their kids have been killed, hurt or apprehended and they’re just hurting so much.”

“If using drugs was considered a health issue rather than a criminal issue, we’d have to change that prison into a motel or something, and get rid of the fences.”

[Top Photo: Though the work is all-consuming, Jean Swanson does find respite in taking the odd nap. In fact, she moved her favourite rocking chair from home to her office at City Hall where she’s rested her eyes on particularly long days during the dinner break. (JENNIFER GAUTHIER / FOR STARMETRO)]